Thomas Rogers's Open Salon Blog

Want to tweet the Oscars for Salon?

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:02:55 -0500

It's Oscar night -- and Salon will be liveblogging the ceremony, starting at 7:30pm ET! Mary Elizabeth Williams, Drew Grant, Kerry Lauerman and other Salon staffers will be posting their tweets to the Salon cover. We'll also be pulling together Twitter's best reactions to red carpet fashion starting at 6 pm EST.

And we want you to participate! We'll be retweeting the best tweets from our readers over the course of the night. Just make sure to tag them #salonoscars so we can find them -- and we'll check them out.

Salon Kitchen Challenge: Burger edition

Thu, 27 May 2010 12:05:29 -0400

Apologies for the delay this week: But here is your Salon Kitchen Challenge update.

FIRST OF ALL, CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS WEEK'S WINNER:

Jodi Kasten! For her haunting, bittersweet memories of the New Orleans of her childhood -- with $2 illegal booze and delicious food in all corners -- and her worries about a city that has since become something much more sinister, and much more tragic.

AND NOW FOR THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE:

Burgers may not technically be a seasonal food -- the greatest hamburger I've ever eaten was cooked in the winter, indoors, in a pan -- but there's no denying that with Memorial Day around the corner, we’re barreling into grilling season.

So break out your white shoes for the beginning of summer and help us all get ready for months of thrilling sizzle with your best burgers. What's your spin on them? Do you go crazy with toppings? Are you a mix-stuff-into-the-patty kind of burgermeister? Or are you a traditionalist, concerned mainly with getting good meat and cooking it the right way?

Be sure to tag your posts: SKC burgers

Introducing a new tool for boosting your traffic

Wed, 26 May 2010 17:05:00 -0400

As we've pointed out in the past, one of our goals at Open Salon is to help you find an audience for your writing -- not just on Open, but in the world at large. And, as I've pointed out before [link to previous OS traffic post] one of the ways for you to do just that is to keep your eye out for the popular subjects of the day (what people are talking about, and, more importantly, Googling about), and use those as a taking-off point.

Checking Google Trends -- which shows which stories and topics are most actively being searched on Google -- is a good option. Charles Yoo, our own traffic expert, is going to start posting the hot Google trends of the day on his blog. We'll be linking to it from the cover's right column, so if you're curious about what the rest of the web is talking about, check it out. (I'm going to close comments on this post, but feel free to leave comments over on Charles' blog)

Kitchen challenge: In honor of American shrimp

Tue, 18 May 2010 11:05:36 -0400

CONGRATULATIONS to this week's winner: "Felicia Lee! For hating -- yes, hating -- peas. She did watch a pea nearly take her sister's life, so that's reasonable. But she also bucked up enough to give us that story, a fascinating linguistic account of the name of the pea, and a fantastic recipe for the one way she can stand to eat them."

AND NOW FOR THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE (via Francis Lam):

"Every year, right around this time, people start setting sail from towns like Bayou La Batre, Ala., Biloxi, Miss., and Venice, La., to shrimp the waters of the Gulf. It's a magical time down there. Every morning boats pull into docks, selling shrimp so fresh, so sweet they're creamy when you indulge your curiosity and bite into one raw.

Still, most people will opt to cook their shrimp, and the list of specialties is awfully long, as anyone who's seen Forrest Gump will attest.

This year, of course, shrimp season is looking a little less magical for our friends down on the Gulf, with the BP oil spill threatening some of their best fishing grounds, not to mention the incredibly complex, fragile ecosystem of the Gulf Coast. And adding to that pressure is the widespread fear that Gulf seafood is unsafe to eat (my take, based on conversations with scientists and fishery management experts: If you can still buy it at this point, it's safe).

So this week, in honor of shrimp season and the men and women who catch American shrimp, let's get all Bubba Gump and share our favorite shrimp recipes and stories.

Be sure to tag your posts: SKC shrimp"

Spam attack

Sun, 16 May 2010 13:05:30 -0400

As all of you have surely noticed, we're dealing with a really unpleasant attack from spammers (though I can probably think for some more choice words for them) this afternoon. Thanks for all of your messages and flags telling us about it.

Our tech staff has been alerted, and we're trying to deal with it as best we can. So sorry for the disruption, and we really really appreciate your patience.